Heavyweight boxing champion James Parker never turned down an autograph

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A heavyweight boxing champion, he fought the last bare-knuckle boxing match in Canada.

But “The Barrie Bomber” was also known for his soft side, as a loving husband and father.

The thunderous, right-hand punches and ferocious bouts of James Parker, who died last week in London, won’t soon be forgotten in the boxing world.

At a hulking 6-4, 355 lbs. at the peak of his career, Parker was once introduced at Madison Square Gardens in New York as “the hardest-hitting heavyweight in history.” Parker, an inductee of the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame, fought his final bout in 1958 following a 9-year professional career.

His record — 30-7-4 — includes 17 knockouts and a shot at the world heavyweight title.

Born in Saskatoon in 1928, Parker moved in the 1930s to Barrie where his father had a Massey-Harris dealership.

He wound up in London after serving a five-month sentence at the old London jailhouse for fraud.

The road to boxing legend began with an amateur career starting in 1947.

“He was a championship fighter, and it was cool for me as a kid to have an uncle as a fighter,” said Tom Parker, who has fond memories of his uncle’s boxing days.

“He was a Barrie guy, and although he might not have been the most famous fighter, he was a good one.”

Boxing was Parker’s passion, and he was a championship fighter for much of his career.

“We were proud of him and other kids were scared of you because your uncle was a fighter,” Tom laughed.

After beginning training with the Magneto boxing family in Toronto, Parker won the Alberta novice heavyweight championship — his debut bout. When he turned professional, Parker trained in New Jersey and fought in Toronto, New York, Washington and Florida.

In 1954, Parker defeated John Arthur to claim the British Empire heavyweight championship. That brought him a world heavyweight fight against Archie Moore in 1956.

The bout against Moore was fought at the old Maple Leaf Stadium in Toronto, with seating capacity of about 13,000. Parker lost the fight in the ninth round.

Moore had opened a large cut above Parker’s eye that prompted the referees to end the match. The match was called a technical knockout in Moore’s favour.

Bruce Huff, a former Toronto and Southwestern Ontario sports columnist, still vividly recalls a picture of Parker from the fight. “He was bleeding all down his face,” he said.

Parker was notorious in the boxing world as a “tough a resilient fighter,” said Huff. “He could take a beating, but nobody could ever knock him down.”

Parker’s legendary bare-knuckle fight against Howard Chard is considered the last of its kind fought in Canada. Held in a private Toronto bar, the fight is said to have gone for almost an hour before it was stopped.

But despite Parker’s size and ferocious boxing abilities, Mel Oxford — the former president of the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame — remembers the pugilist as a gentle giant, a family man well liked by his many friends inside and outside boxing circles.

“There are so many things to remember about him, because he was such a nice person and very well like,” said Oxford.